"Sorry to keep you waiting!"
Lan walked to Champ's side in a few steps, her movements swift and decisive, without any hesitation.
His upright posture and extremely formal, military-style movements were so imposing, yet in Champ's eyes, he seemed like a strange, distorted, and swaying figure.
Looking around out of the corner of her eye, Lan, who had come prepared, determined that there were no other members of the ' Wild Hunt ' here.
It seems that Champ has great faith in himself. Over the past few days, he has been lying to Champ, claiming that he "enjoys taking children's lives," in order to gain Champ's trust.
In retrospect, this strategy, which even disgusted him, was an unprecedented success.
"Boss, double the amount of dark beer."
Lan took out the money for the drinks from her pocket, then got up to find a bottle opener.
"You absolutely have to drink a lot this time. I already had so many before you came... burp"
"I'm drunk," Champ said to Lan.
"Oh? That would be perfect."
Seeing Champ's flushed face and drunken appearance, Lan had a hunch.
After all, the dark beer at this tavern has an alcohol content similar to high-proof rum, enough to make you drowsy and unable to wake up.
" Champ, is it true that you killed children at a primary school in Ruyao, outside the 20th district of the Northwest region?"
"How could that be fake? Hehe, I was practically a saint, freeing an entire class of little angels, cleaning them clean of all their impurities..."
"Ah, it's such a pity I couldn't liberate the children from the other classes... But fate is so unfair, because I was very busy at the time..."
"I'm getting a little excited, "Champ said, his joyful face seemingly still recalling the wonderful things he had done that day.
However, dense black lines had appeared on Lan's face, casting a shadow over his fair complexion.
Lan used the corkscrew to open a bottle, took a small sip of dark beer, and then instead of putting the corkscrew back in place, she plunged it straight into Champ's thick neck.
" Thousand-Mile Flight - Mostima!"
"Um?!"
The owner and the customers in the bar watched this scene in utter horror.
One side speaks the truth after drinking, while the other side relies on alcohol to embolden even the most timid.
The bottle opener couldn't possibly have pierced Champ's neck; using a bottle opener as a weapon was something Champ could never have anticipated.
However, just as Champ thought it was a joke, thousands of sharp feathers, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, flew from the direction of the bottle opener. Distracted by the gadget, he was pierced by the feathers one by one into his neck.
Champ casually brushed his hand away, even cutting his fingers with the sharp feathers. When he looked up, his drunken vision was filled with swirling crimson blood.
"Lan, you..."
Champ looked up at Lan. The man who had been so humble and respectful over the past few days now looked like a demon god capable of destroying heaven and earth.
He sprouted bizarre, inhuman wings from his back, and using these wings, he hovered in the air, looking down at himself with a cold, murderous expression.
Its arrogant posture and cruel expression were truly as terrifying as the fallen angel ' Mostima ' described in ancient books.
"Let me tell you a secret, Champ. A secret about why I became a member of the Imperial Guard and why I'm here."
Lan hovered in the air, slowly approaching Champ.
"Because I was the teacher of the class of children you murdered!"
"... Hehehe, I knew it was such a coincidence, now I know."
A stinging pain in his neck and the dizziness of being drunk came at the same time, but Champ still tried his best to stay awake.
His opponent was Teigu, so he couldn't afford to be careless or negligent. He was now at a critical juncture where he was being ambushed and his life was in danger.
"So what are you trying to say? You went to all this trouble just to avenge your children who have been freed?"
Champ almost laughed.
"You're really bored, getting upset over something like this..."
"Shut your dog mouth."
Lan had no room for pity anymore; this was probably the first time since she became the captain of the Imperial Guard that she had ever truly wanted to kill someone.
Lan's eyes narrowed, and thousands upon thousands of bullet-like wings shot out from the feathers on her back.
The wings were moving even faster than before, Champ knew that if he were hit directly, he would die on the spot.
" Chaos Scream - Storm Orb!"
Champ quickly summoned his Teigu, a throwing-type Teigu composed of multiple throwing balls that resembled colorful balls played by a clown.
Different colored orbs will appear in front of you, each with its own unique effect.
But Champ the Clown already had a knack for using those balls.
A bluish-white jade ball charged toward tens of thousands of winged blades; no matter how you looked at it, this small ball seemed unable to withstand such a powerful attack.
Indeed, the wings easily shattered the Storm Orb, but a large amount of energy quickly erupted from the shattered Storm Orb. A gust of wind swept in, and the blades of those wings quickly lost their sharpness, turning into pieces of waste paper scattered on the ground.
" Flame Orb, Blast Orb!"
Champ the Clown threw two more jewels, launching a fierce attack on Lan's left side.
The Flame Orb and the Blast Orb collided, creating a massive fiery impact.
The flames mixed with the alcohol in the liquor, making the attack even more intense and fierce. Lan focused intently and dodged the combined attack, but soon her left side was engulfed in flames.
" Ice and Snow Orb!"
Champ threw an ice-blue bead to Lan's right. The bead emitted a faint trace of Esdeath's aura, but its power was less than one-thousandth of Esdeath's.
Lan's feathers were fully charged and once again shot towards the Ice and Snow Orb. After the Ice and Snow Orb was shattered, a powerful blizzard was created. This blizzard mingled with the previous flames, creating a large amount of white mist.
This was Champ had hoped for. His most prized fighting technique was to use different jewels to distract his opponent and then seize an opening to defeat him in one fell swoop.
"Die, Lightning Strike Orb!"
Champ threw out a green pearl; in the thick fog, it was impossible for anyone to ignore their position and dodge such an attack from such a distance.
Even if blocked, the force field generated after the Lightning Strike Orb explodes will quickly paralyze the opponent's body, rendering him completely immobile for a short period of time. At that point, Champ can take Lan's life with a single strike.